labor

1. noun

1)

manual labor

Syn:

work, hard work, toil, exertion, industry, drudgery, effort, menial work; informal slog, grind, sweat, scut work; literary travail, moil

Ant:

rest, leisure

2)

management and labor need to cooperate

Syn:

workers, employees, workmen, workforce, staff, working people, blue-collar workers, laborers, labor force, proletariat

Ant:

management

3)

the labors of Hercules

Syn:

task, job, chore, mission, assignment

4)

a difficult labor

Syn:

childbirth, birth, delivery, nativity; contractions, labor pains; formal parturition; literary travail; dated confinement; archaic lying-in, accouchement, childbed

2. verb

1)

a project on which he had labored for many years

Syn:

work, work hard, toil, slave (away), grind away, struggle, strive, exert oneself, work one's fingers to the bone, work like a dog, work like a Trojan; informal slog away, plug away; literary travail, moil

2)

she labored to unite the party

Syn:

strive, struggle, endeavor, work, try, work hard, try hard, make every effort, do one's best, do one's utmost, do all one can, give one's all, go all out, fight, put oneself out, apply oneself, exert oneself; informal bend/lean/fall over backwards, pull out all the stops, bust a gut, bust one's chops

3)

there is no need to labor the point

Syn:

overemphasize, belabor, overstress, overdo, strain, overplay, make too much of, exaggerate, dwell on, harp on

4)

Rex was laboring under a misapprehension

Syn:

suffer from, be a victim of, be deceived by, be misled by

••

labor, drudgery, grind, toil, travail, work

Most people have to work for a living, meaning that they have to exert themselves mentally or physically in return for a paycheck. But work is not always performed by humans (a machine that works like a charm). Labor is not only human but usually physical work (the labor required to build a stone wall), although it can also apply to intellectual work of unusual difficulty (the labor involved in writing a symphony). Anyone who has been forced to perform drudgery knows that it is the most unpleasant, uninspiring, and monotonous kind of labor (a forklift that eliminates the drudgery of stacking boxes; the drudgery of compiling a phone book). A grind is even more intense and unrelenting than drudgery, emphasizing work that is performed under pressure in a dehumanizing way (the daily grind of classroom teaching). Toil suggests labor that is prolonged and very tiring (farmers who toil endlessly in the fields), but not necessarily physical (mothers who toil to teach their children manners). Those who travail endure pain, anguish, or suffering (his hours of travail ended in heartbreak).